Gastropoda
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Sliding into Monday…
This is good snail weather. Near sunset, the great wall holding up Sunset Park was awash these guys/gals.
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Snigel
We had wet weather in Sweden, and slugs like nothing better. Rather more so than birds, that’s for sure. Arion vulgaris was everywhere. These seem to be the invasive — “the Spanish slug”– but it gets complicated. Arion lusitanicus has also been used for this species. This journal article suggests it’s actually native to Central…
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Milestone Shell
A milestone: after six and one half years of blogging, I have reached WordPress’s 3GB maximum of free image storage. This is at least one picture a day, probably more on average, for some 2375 days. Wow! Feel free to wander about in the voluminous archives, loosely cataloged by subject… But now I have to…
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Spring Cleaning Snails
Three different specimens of our old friend Cepaea nemoralis.The snail’s “foot,” which gave rise to the name for this whole class of Molluscs, Gastropoda, which means simply stomach-foot (and is anatomically incorrect; the stomach is in the portion of the animal that is inside the shell).Just a size comparison with some other snails found during…
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Natural Object: Moon Snail
Detail of the spire of a shell of an Atlantic moon snail, also known as a shark’s eye. Polinices duplicatus is found from Cape Cod to Texas. This one was found on the beach at Breezy Point, Queens, NYC.
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Whelk egg cases
Telling your whelk egg case strings apart, Southern New England to Mid-Atlantic division: This is the egg case of the channeled whelk, Busycotypus canaliculatus. Note how the edges of each individual capsule comes together as if pinched, giving each capsule a sharp edge. This is the egg case string of the knobbed whelk, Busycon carica.…
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Not at all sluggish
I know you’ve all been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first slug of the year in the Back 40, my concrete backyard. Well, here it is. (There were probably others, but as mostly nocturnal creatures, they’re hard to see.) The leopard slug, Limax maximus, slime-delivered. Disliked by gardeners, for they eat greens; loved by…
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Winkles
Four shells collected at Cape Anne, Massachusetts. The three clustered around the illustration are Common European Periwinkles, Littorina littorea. This winkle, much savored by Old World palates, was first recorded in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1840, perhaps arriving via rock ballast in ships. Another source says they may have arrived much earlier, upon…
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Virgin Gorda Beachcombing
Various intertidal snails were found on old coral, mangrove roots, rocks, coconut shells.
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Another beach
The Common slipper shell, Crepidula fornicata, a.k.a. boat shell, a marine gastropod, or snail, pilled up at the Jetties on Nantucket. A not particularly rocky area, the island’s surrounding waters present less than enough bases for these snails to attach onto, so they often attach to each other, in chains. The species name comes from…
Backyard and Beyond 